Explanation: An
expansive nebula of dust is seen to surround
red supergiant
star Betegeuse in this remarkable high
resolution composite, an infrared
VLT
image from the European Southern Observatory.
Betelgeuse itself
is outlined by the small, central red circle.
If found in our own solar system
its diameter would almost encompass
the orbit of Jupiter.
But the larger envelope of circumstellar dust extends
some 60 billion kilometers into space, equivalent to about 400 times
the Earth-Sun distance.
The dust is
likely formed as the swollen
atmosphere of the supergiant sheds material into space,
a final phase in the evolution of
a massive star.
Mixing with the
interstellar medium,
the dust could ultimately form
rocky terrestrial planets like
Earth.
The central bright portion of the outer image has been
masked to reveal fainter extended structures.
The field of view is 5.63
arcseconds
across.